A Whackadoodle True Story Which Might be of Interest

Something I learned at a "Team-Building" workshop that the instructor didn't bother to teach us.

A number of years ago, the company I worked for sent me along with all its staff to one of those team-building workshops. You might have been to one. A huge room at the local convention center in which a couple hundred people are told, “Just go. These workshops are necessary for accreditation, and you’ll get free coffee and donuts.”

One of the first things the moderator did was divide the entire room into groups of two and have us sit across from each other. She then told us that we should get ready to arm wrestle with our new partners, and she would donate $100 to the charity of the person who could win the most times against their partner within the next sixty seconds.

Much laughter ensued throughout the room as everyone prepared to arm wrestle. The moderator called out, “Begin.” Partners began straining against each other all around me.

All except my own partner, who after we locked hands, simply looked me in the eye and asked, “What charity do you represent?”

“I am sort of a animal rights advocate, so probably the World Wildlife Fund,” I answered.

“That’s a good cause,” she said with a wink, and then deliberately dropped her hand down causing me to win the first battle without even trying. She then pulled up our hands into the starting position, looked me in the eye again and added, “I personally like The Heifer Project.”

I laughed and said, “That’s also a worthy cause,” then dropped my hand and let her win. And so we went on for the entire sixty seconds.

While all of the people around us continued to fight over who would win their contests, my partner and I managed to allow each other to win over sixty times, always being sure to keep our wins tied so that both of us could claim victory for our charities together.

Our hands went back and forth so quickly, we both lost count. We actually had a conversation about how she’d seen this “team-building” exercise before. All the while, our hands kept flipping from one side to the other.

The other teams in the room were lucky to get even one or two wins because they wasted so much time in the struggle. My partner worked to help me win, while I worked to help my partner win. In the end, we both won without any struggle and agreed to split the hundred dollars for both of our charities.

In the end, my partner taught me more about the art of “team-building” than the instructor, and the instructor never paid up!

I think it was because when she polled the room, “Raise your hand if you won once. Keep your hand up if you won twice. Keep your hand up if you won three times…” You get the idea. By the end of her poll, we were the only two in the entire room with our hands still up, and we kind of ruined her punch line.